David Cutcliffe the Head Coach

He just looks healthier at UT than he did back in his UM head coaching days

To clarify my stance on David Cutcliffe I submit the following article from the Mobile Newspaper. My friend and elite blogger of Belly of the Beast, Gray Hardison, alerted me to this article. So thank you Gray. It perfectly curtails to our Cutcliffe discussion via comments. From the Mobile Paper
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However, the infatuation with Cutcliffe as a head-coaching candidate
is borderline comical. He failed as a recruiter at Ole Miss and lost
games on the Rebels' sideline that should provide pause for any school
thinking of putting its program in his hands.

Oxford, Miss., native Jeffrey Dukes would be at Ole Miss today if
Cutcliffe had offered a scholarship or showed any sign of interest. He
didn't, so Dukes starts in Alabama's secondary today. Had Dukes signed
with Ole Miss, there's a decent chance Justin Woodall would be in Ole
Miss red and blue and not Alabama crimson and houndstooth Saturday at
Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Cutcliffe never bothered to recruit Jimmy Johns, badly misevaluated
Jerious Norwood, lost Xavier Mitchell and Parys Haralson to Tennessee,
Will Arnold to Tennessee and Quintin Culberson to Mississippi State.

He failed to replace quality assistants with competent replacements
and was overly loyal to obviously incompetent staffers. He lost the
support of key Ole Miss boosters when he flirted with other job
possibilities and then openly pursued an opening at Kentucky.

Most importantly, perhaps, Cutcliffe failed to acquire anything
resembling a competent successor to Eli Manning when Archie's youngest
left for the NFL's New York Giants.

So, yes, Cutcliffe is inarguably one of the best offensive
coordinators in the country. Perhaps he has learned from his mistakes
at Ole Miss and will one day make a great head coach. However, some in
the media are getting it wrong when they play the role of revisionist
historians.
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May I make a few comments. Cutcliffe is a good offensive coordinator, it is obvious he is doing well for Tennessee right now. As a matter of fact, if somehow Tennessee does play Notre Dame in a bowl game, I hope they kick the stew out of the Irish. However, in hindsight he was a terrible head coach. Don't forget he took over a Tommy Tuberville program loaded with talent. If I had the time I would go back and count up the number of future professional players he had on his first team. I've done it before and I think the number was 11-14 (future NFL players). And with all that talent he went to the Independence Bowl with a 7-4 record.

Regarding the papers first paragraph, he was absolutely correct saying games were lost on the Rebel sidelines that should make anyone think twice about putting a program in his hands. Who can forget the Eli Manning senior year where we went tooth and nail with LSU, eventually losing to the national champions. But wait, we also lost two other games that year...to MEMPHIS AND TEXAS TECH. Let's not even talk about the number of losses to Vanderbilt.

Regarding the papers paragraphs about recruiting talent: David Cutcliffe somehow thought Joe Gunn and Deuce McAllister were equally talented. Why else was he so intent on getting Joe Gunn his carries during the 4th quarter of the Auburn game. Patrick Willis sat on the bench for his first two years of college, only to have Coach Orgeron come in and say Willis would have started for USC. We could go on and on.
Need anymore examples of Cutcliffe's recruiting. Look at the talent of Ole Miss right now. We are playing freshman and sophomores and still don't have our full amount of scholarship players because Cut never signed enough.
On evaluating talent, who can forget when David Cutcliffe signed Ethan Flatt. Before signing Flatt, Cut announced he wasn't going to sign a quarterback this year unless he found one of the same caliber of Eli Manning. Along comes Ethan Flatt. For those of you who have never heard of Ethan Flatt you get my point.
Assistant coaches - good grief he had like 9 defensive coordinators and legendary Kurt Roper as QB coach.

I am tired from rambling. All that to say, David Cutcliffe is not a head coach (Even though the media incessently disagrees). He is going to have much, much success with the Vols as an offensive coordinator. He is great with X's and O's, just don't put him in charge of a program.